The 2020 Sir Francis Burt Oration 2020 was delivered by former member of Francis Burt Chambers and former President of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Western Australia, Carmel McLure AC QC, at a special event tonight at the Perth Town Hall.
Entitled The Rule of Law Under Pressure in an Age of Disruption, the oration explored the legal and political dimensions of the Rule of Law and the challenges to it, at home and abroad, from the major upheavals of the 21st Century.
Ms McLure shone a spotlight on what she identified as a ‘sustained assault on the rule of law in the United States during the administration of President Trump’.
Closer to home, Ms McLure also examined in some detail a Western Australian law that ‘truly shocked’ her – the Iron Ore Processing (Mineralogy Pty Ltd) Agreement Amendment Act 2020 (WA).
The focus of the Sir Francis Burt Oration 2020 couldn’t have been more timely, with the US Presidential election decided over the weekend; the debate over measures taken to protect community health and wellbeing recently being heard in the High Court; and the ‘Palmer legislation’ on its way there.
The annual Sir Francis Burt Oration honours the founder of the Independent Bar in Western Australia and former Chief Justice and Governor of Western Australia, Sir Francis Burt. The inaugural oration – The Law in a Climate of Change – was first delivered in 2019 by the Hon Robert French AC, the former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia.
